The Angel Returns
by Greenninja77
Summary: When Cas unexpectedly leaves Dean one day out of the blue, he's hurt and angry. Three years later they run into each other by mistake. Old memories resurface and new tensions are formed. Will Dean forgive Cas and take his angel back? Rated M to be safe. Destiel.


**Hello guys! My friend and I have been working on this for a while, (yet another reason I haven't been updating A Girl in Place of an Angel) every section or so we traded off the POVs. We're planning on doing around three chapters with roughly six sections per chapter. Hope you enjoy! **

Flying was bliss... the only luxury Cas allowed himself these days. Wind rushed past him in a flurry and deposited him as far away as he liked with a mere few flaps of his wings. Today his destination was a human house of knowledge- 'Library', he silently reminded himself- in the city of Sacramento.

He dropped down in a darkened alleyway beside the library and took a moment to straighten his tie before he walked up the steps and pushed open the massive door. The smell of paper wafted out to him on a blast of cool air. His shoes _click-tapped_ on the marble floor and he sent a vague smile to the librarian behind the reception desk. Then he hurried off to the non-fiction section, his smile dropping off his face at the sight of a familiar golden-haired man in a leather jacket staring intently at a musty tome. He wasn't looking forward to this.

O.o

Dean was fuming as he angrily flipped the pages of the old, dusty book. He could be relaxing in a bar if it weren't for his stupid brother. He stopped and started skimming a page when his shoulder started to tingle, like tiny shocks running over his skin. His stomach tightened as his mind registered one word. _Cas_. He looked up hesitantly and immediately locked eyes with him. Cas stared back with wide eyes, and Dean though he might even look a bit _scared_. Dean stood up swiftly as Cas stalked towards him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean said in a low growl. "I'm sorry, Dean," Cas looked down at the floor as he spoke, "if I knew you we're here I would not have come." It felt like someone had stabbed Dean right through the chest. Sure, he didn't give Cas a warm welcome, but Cas had to know how much _that_ had hurt. Anger surged through him as his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared.

"Yeah? Well screw you Cas, I'm outta here." He walked past the angel, shoving him roughly in the shoulder. He was going to a bar and getting drunk as hell, because he couldn't deal with this right now. He was so preoccupied, he didn't hear the footsteps behind him.

O.o

It hadn't been a conscious decision to follow Dean, to catch the door just before it closed and shadow him down the darkened street, to wait a few minutes before entering the bar behind an elderly man and a young woman clearly too young to be there. It was merely... instinctive. The second Cas had seen Dean, he had felt their connection reestablish itself. It had nearly killed Cas to sever the bond the first time... he knew he wouldn't survive having to separate himself a second time. There was no going back now... he was staying by Dean for good.

Cas was startled out of his reverie by a waitress tapping him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me sir? There are no available tables at this time... do you mind being seated with another person?" Cas forced a smile to his face and shook his head slightly.

"That would be fine." The waitress motioned for Cas to follow her to his table, so he stood up and walked after her through the crowded room. Due to fate, angelic intervention, or sheer dumb luck, he would never be able to tell... the table she led him to was Dean's.

He was hunched over a glass of whiskey. A plate of chicken wings sat untouched at his elbow, and there were already two drained glasses sitting haphazardly by the salt and pepper shakers, ice melting into gold-tinged water as it mixed with the last drops of whiskey. Cas assumed that Dean was already a little drunk, or at least on his way, because he didn't even look up as Cas slid into the chair across from him.

Cas cleared his throat and Dean glanced up, his face dark and his eyes blazing. He swiftly raised his glass to his lips and drained it, then set it next to the other two and signaled to the waitress to bring him another. Cas hummed a little, low in his throat, trying to break the awkward silence.

"So..." he tried. "You come here often?"

O.o

Dean nearly choked on his drink, "What?"

"I am merely trying to make conversation, Dean."

"Why?" He snapped bitterly. Cas had already messed up his life once, and Dean wasn't going to let him do it again.

"I don't know," Cas sighed, "I thought it would be nice, seeing as we're sitting together."

"See, that's another thing. Since when do angels eat?"

"We can if we want to."

"But you don't, you never do." Cas' brows furrowed together and his lips puckered as he stared down intently at the table. "Cas, why are you here?"

"I followed you," the angel said quietly.

"What?"

"When you left the library. I didn't know what else to do, so I followed you here."

Dean closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breathe, "why?"

"You're upset." It wasn't a question.

Dean grit his teeth together, "yeah, so?"

Cas cocked his head like a confused puppy, "why?" Dean's anger boiled over and he exploded in Cas' face.

"Why?! Because you left, that's why! After everything that happened you just walked away like it was no big deal! And now you show up three years later like everything is fine, when it's not!" The angel stared at him wide eyed. He hesitated for a moment, then leaned across the table and pressed his lips against Dean's. Dean froze, what the hell was Cas doing? He shoved Cas roughly in the chest. Cas opened his mouth to speak but Dean was already up. He threw some money down on the table and quickly walked out of the crowed bar.

His car was parked a few blocks away so he started walking. The chilly evening air swirled around him, forcing him to pull up his jacket collar and jam his hands in his pockets. He desperately tried to think of something else as memories of Cas clouded his mind.

**FLASHBACK**

_He was sitting at a table in a bar, the angel sitting across from him quietly. Sam had left about an hour ago and Cas had been acting strangely ever since. He took another sip of his beer and studied the man sitting opposite him as he fidgeted nervously._

_"You alright, man?" Cas nodded slightly, looking down. He looked around the bar. They were the only ones there except for an older couple and a group of guys. "Lets get outta here," he said as he downed the rest of his beer and threw some money on the table. Cas stood up swiftly and they walked out of the bar and towards the car._

_"Dean?" Cas' voice was quiet._

_"Yeah?" Dean turned around to face him. Cas took a step towards him, so their faces were inches apart. He noticed how close their lips were and his mind went fuzzy. Cas just stood there looking at him, and he felt his heart pounding in his chest. The angel suddenly leaned forward and pressed his lips against Dean's. Dean froze and Cas pulled away._

_"Dean, I-" he was cut off as Dean kissed him hungrily. Cas reached up and wove his fingers in Dean's hair, making his knees grow weak. They both broke away, gasping for air. Dean couldn't help but grin stupidly at the angel. He wrapped an arm around Cas' waist as they walked to the car._

**END FLASHBACK**

He managed to walk back to the car and fumble with the keys as he tried to unlock the door. He sat miserably in the car as painful memories continued to resurface. He kept telling himself that his eyes were wet because of the wind and that he needed to pull himself together. But all he could do was sit in his car with his head in his hands.

O.o

Cas watched Dean leave, parting through the crowd like Moses through the Red Sea. Even pissed off, half-drunk, and stumbling, he still had a magnetism that made people treat him like a king, or a god. _He should be the angel_, Cas thought, _not me. He looks more like a heavenly warrior than any actual angel I've ever met. _Cas wanted to follow, like he always had before. He wanted to. But he made himself stay.

He flagged the waitress to bring more of whatever Dean had been drinking… a _lot_ more. He had the feeling he would need it before the night was through.

xXx

By the sixth shot of Jack, Cas had mysteriously moved to the bar (he had no idea how) and was laughing at some little nothing the bartender, an attractive woman in her late twenties, had said as she was pouring him more whiskey.

By the tenth shot, a crowd had gathered and was chanting, "Drink! Drink! Drink!" as the angel smoothly swallowed shot after shot after shot.

He gave up on glasses all together somewhere between the twentieth and twenty-fifth shot and went straight for the bottle, stepping over the bar where two scantily-clad waitresses were shimmying around and pouring vodka into the open, waiting mouths of patrons, and grabbing the open bottle of Jack from the bartender. She grabbed Cas's wrist and whispered in his ear.

"You know you're gonna have to pay for that…" Her breath smelled like cinnamon gum, and Cas caught the silver flash of light reflecting from the stud in her tongue. She peered up at him through her lashes and stepped closer, pressing herself up against the angel. Almost reflexively, Cas bent down and kissed her.

He immediately knew it was a mistake. He wasn't drunk enough, and she wasn't… well, she wasn't Dean. He tried to disentangle himself from her, but she had her hands in Cas's hair, and she wasn't letting go. Finally, Cas shoved her away and she stumbled back and crashed into the bar. The bar fell silent. Nobody dared move save another waitress who hurried to the bartender's side and checked her for injuries.

Cas was escorted roughly outside by two burly men. A third was waiting in the alley behind the bar. Cas knew what was coming, but he didn't run. He welcomed the distraction.

"Hey, asshole. What the fuck were you thinking? That there's Danny's girl!" Cas assumed that one of the men must have been Danny. He held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Hey, now… no need to get angry…" Cas slurred. Of course this only made the men angrier.

Fortunately he only felt the first few blows, and even those only barely. The alcohol numbed his body but not his mind, and as he was beaten and bloodied, bruised, torn, and cut, the only thought in his mind was for Dean. Dean in the mornings, sleepy green eyes and slow smiles and rumpled golden hair; Dean in the rain, angry, pleading, desperate for Cas to stay; Dean… Dean?!

In a flash two of the burly men were on the ground, moaning in pain. The third joined them seconds later, out cold. Then Cas was being lifted, up, up, up, and _oh God the whiskey was wearing off and Holy Mother of All the PAIN-_ and then Dean was above him, murmuring, whispering faint assurances, and… crying? And then there was nothing but black.

**Extra: The same friend who's doing this story with me drew an *amazing* fanart of Dean and Ashley that I'm getting tomorrow, so look for the link to that when I update my other story. **


End file.
